Casella Family Brands is making large savings in time and labour costs through a new supply chain solution. These savings were achieved following implementation of Manhattan SCALE.
A family owned beverage distributor based in Yenda, NSW, Casella Family Brands (CFB) is renowned for its signature wine range, Yellow Tail. This brand now comprises 27 per cent of all exported Australian bottled table and holds the record for the fastest growing imported wine in the US. CFB is also a key player in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia and ships over 12.5 million cases of wine to more than 50 countries each year.
Targeting global distribution management and order fulfilment capability, the new software and platform technology converges back-end supply chain execution with front-end sales. The availability improvements mean Yellow Tail is seen, “on more store shelves, and in more bars, pubs, clubs, hotels and restaurants around the world with every passing week,” said distribution manager Sam McLeod.
“Under our previous system we had several staff members allocating orders to our drivers; they would allocate that stock from a variety of rows, but not necessarily coordinate with each other,” McLeod said. “By having one system distribute all the orders via FIFO [First In, First Out], it greatly reduces the number of [warehouse] rows that are only partially utilised.”
Another benefit of SCALE is that the company is now able to lot track down to the individual pallet, as now every individual pallet has a licence plate. Previously there was no ability to distinguish between the first carton and the last carton of, for example, 30,000 cases of a product. The ability to lot track also helps detect slow-moving stock to prevent obsolescence.
“This has been a bit of a boon,” McLeod said. “Previously it was quite difficult to discover the quantities of older stock in the warehouse.”
